Last of the Time Lords (TV story)
Last of the Time Lords 'is the thirteenth and final episode of the third series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Colin Teague and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones and John Barrowman as Jack Harkness. Overview To be added Synopsis The Master has finally achieved his greatest ambition - the subjugation of the Doctor and the entire human race. Ruling the population with an iron fist and enslaving billions, he prepares to launch a fleet of rockets to further his dictation across the solar system. Over the course of a year, with no Doctor, Martha Jones has walked the world, looking for a way to stop the Master. She finally returns to Great Britain with everything she needs to take him down. And hopefully save the one man who could fix everything... Plot One year after the Master decimated most of the planet, Earth is declared a dead world. Dr. Tom Milligan waits on a seafront on the coast of England as Martha disembarks from a rowboat bringing her back home. She requests his help in getting her to a Professor Docherty given his allowance to travel but doesn't tell him why. He tells her that over the previous year, her travels have made her famous and stories have arisen that she is the only person able to kill the Master. At dawn, the Master presents himself on the bridge of the Valliant where Martha's mother Francine and sister Tish are working as maids and the still aged Doctor is confined to a tent, dragged out for his amusement. He wheels him to a window and makes him look out over his new dominion, but he sits in a state of dispair, having figured out what the Toclafane really were over the last year. Taunting him with the knowledge of Martha's return, he refuses to listen to what he has to say and proceeds to ready for 'launch day'. Unbeknowst to him, the Doctor sends a hand signal to Francine which passes from her to Clive to Tish and finally to Jack, ready to enact a plan. Meanwhile, Milligan brings Martha to a mass shipyard of rockets being readied for war similar to ones she'd seen all over the Earth on her journeys. Two Toclafane fly in overhead but don't notice Martha on account of her perception filter. The two then head off to find Docherty. Up above at exactly 3:00, Jack breaks free of his chains and causes a distraction of the ship large enough for Francine and Tish to get the Master's jacket to the Doctor and for him to draw his laser screwdriver and hold him hostage. However, the screwdriver is isomorphically controlled and thus would only work for the Master. With this, he injures Francine and has both she and Tish locked up as punishment while Jack is gunned down and re-chained by the guards. On the ground, Martha and Milligan break into the nuclear station where Docherty is hiding out and find her tuning into one of the Master's broadcasts where he addresses Martha and orders her to surrender herself. To prove his point, he uses his screwdriver to age the Doctor further, making him a shrunken, ancient creature, forcing both Martha, her family and Jack to watch. However, after he cuts the transmission, Martha is undeterred; the Doctor is still alive. Deducing the Archangel Network to be the Master's biggest weakness, Martha plots to use it against him; however, they can't act without alerting the Toclafane. Martha draws out a disc with the readings taken from a Toclafane being downed by a bolt of lightning in South Africa. Using the readings, Docherty, Milligan and Martha set up a trap for the Toclafane, luring one down to attack and drawing it into an electrical grid of the recreated shock to take it down. When it's disabled, they take it back to the lab to find out what's inside the casing. Aboard the Valliant, Francine, Clive and Tish all plot to kill the Master with each other while he stands back on the bridge to taunt the Doctor with his almost-completed rocket fleet. The Doctor tries to dissuade him of his plan, but the Master doesn't listen and leaves with Lucy and his Toclafane child, ready for the launch the following morning. Elsewhere, Docherty manages to break into the Toclafane's shell and open it up to find the mutilated remains of a creature inside. It suddenly wakes up and utters the expression, "the skies are made of diamonds". Martha is horrified to realise that it's the boy, Creet, she'd met before he left for Utopia in the future. The Master took Lucy to Utopia where there was no salvation for the human race that they'd been hoping for and they resorted to cannibalism and degeneration until the Master arrived in the Doctor's TARDIS and brought them back in time, transforming the TARDIS into the paradox machine so that the Toclafane could destroy their ancestors without any ill effects to themselves. The Creet Toclafane starts getting deliriously mad and Milligan shoots it. Later that evening, Martha shows Milligan and Docherty a weapon capable of permanently killing the Master; a gun created by UNIT and Torchwood with four chemical vials slotted into capable of disabling regeneration. Still missing the last chemical, she asks Milligan to get her to an old UNIT base in London to get it and Milligan agrees to get her to a slave house in Bexley for the night. After they leave, however, Docherty contacts the Master via the Archangel Network and gives away Martha's location in exchange for information about her son. At the slave house, Martha tells all the terrified people hiding there the story about her travels around the world, insisting that she isn't worthy of being famous so she instead tells them the story of the Doctor; how he saved their lives countless times without anybody ever knowing and promises that he can help them. Suddenly, the Master arrives on the street with a convoy of soldiers and Toclafane and demands Martha show herself. Despite her initial hesitations, she brings herself forth; Milligan tries to take the chance to kill the Master but is gunned down by his screwdriver. After destroying the chemical gun, the Master takes her back to the Valliant. The following morning, the Master gathers Martha's family, Jack and the Doctor to watch her execution at the moment the rockets are set to launch. As the clock ticks down, she starts laughing at the Master's believing that she'd spent the year trying to find a way to kill him. She reveals she'd instead been travelling the Earth telling everybody she met the story of the Doctor while he, all the while a prisoner, had been tuning and integrating himself into the psychic matrix of Archangel Network. Suddenly, everybody across the world starts calling out to the sky, proclaiming the name 'Doctor' and, as the clock to launch strikes zero, the inflow of psychic energy from everybody on the Earth rejuvenates and frees the Doctor. Everybody in the Valliant participates too, even Lucy. The Master tries to stop him with his screwdriver but it has no effect. Once he is fully restored, the Doctor cradles the cowering Master in his arms and imparts his message, "I forgive you". The Master calls the Toclafane down to protect the paradox machine and the Doctor sends Jack to destroy it. Using Jack's teleport, the Master teleports himself and the Doctor to the rocket dock while the Toclafane fly towards the Valliant. The Master pulls out a black hole converter that he'd planned to use as a contingency if he were to be beaten; however, the Doctor appeals to his indomitable sense of self-preservation and gets him to hand it over. Jack is successful in destroying the paradox machine and the Doctor and the Master transport back to the ship as time reverses back to the moment it was activated; all instances of the year the Master reigned over the Earth erased from history. The Doctor also tells everybody that the only people who'll ever know are those present, being at the eye of the storm. The Master tries to escape and is caught by Jack; while everybody tries to figure out what to do with him, Francine points a handgun at him but the Doctor manages to talk her down. Deciding him to be his responsibility, the Doctor decides to sequester him to his TARDIS but Lucy, who had picked up the handgun, shoots the Master. As he collapses, the Doctor cradles him and insists that he regenerate, but the Master, refusing to be his prisoner, refuses to regenerate, laughing to himself that despite his losing the battle, he still won in making the Doctor the last Time Lord again. Asking if the drumming in his head will follow him to the grave, the Master dies; the Doctor cradles his body in arms, sobbing that he's alone in the universe again. After the Doctor burns the Master's body on a funeral pyre, he and Martha say their goodbyes to Jack in Cardiff to return to his team (humouring themselves with the idea that Jack may one day become the Face of Boe), they go back to London where Martha's family adjust to things being normal again. Martha finds the Doctor in the TARDIS and informs him that she's staying behind to look after her family after the things they witnessed as well as explaining, through use of metaphor, that she needs to remove herself from their relationship, recognising that he doesn't love her the way she does him. As she leaves, she gives him her phone and makes him promise to come running when it rings; she then steps out of the TARDIS and goes back to her family. The Doctor launches the TARDIS and begins working it, unaware that while the Master's body burned, his ring fell from the flames and was picked up by a mysterious woman. While he pilots, the wall of the TARDIS smashes inwards and throws the Doctor to the floor. Looking up, he sees that a ship has smashed it's way inside the control room; picking up a life ring that came off it, he turns it over to reveal the words "R.M.S. Titanic". He looks up at the ship and answers only with a bemused "What?!" Cast * The Doctor - David Tennant * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman * The Master - John Simm * Francine Jones - Adjoa Andoh * Tish Jones - Gugu Mbatha-Raw * Clive Jones - Trevor Laird * Leo Jones - Reggie Yates * Lucy Saxon - Alexandra Moen * Thomas Milligan - Tom Ellis * Professor Docherty - Ellie Haddington * Lad - Tom Golding * Woman - Natasha Alexander * Sphere Voices - Zoe Thorne, Gerard Logan, Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''Last of the Time Lords'' page on '''Doctor Who Website